Domestic Girlfriend
Domestic na Kanojo โข Diomedรฉa โข 2019
๐ Welcome to the Mess
Domestic Girlfriend is messy, dramatic, questionable and somehow extremely easy to keep watching. This is not the romance I would recommend if you want healthy communication and peaceful relationships.
It is, however, absolutely the type of anime you watch when you want to witness people making increasingly complicated decisions and then dealing with the fallout.
โจ Synopsis
High school student and aspiring novelist Natsuo Fujii has been hopelessly in love with his teacher, Hina Tachibana. Knowing those feelings are unlikely to go anywhere, he attends a mixer with his friends and meets Rui, a quiet and emotionally distant girl who pulls him into a very unexpected encounter.
The next day, Natsuo’s father announces that he plans to remarry. When his future family arrives, Natsuo discovers that his new stepsisters are none other than Rui… and Hina.
Now living under the same roof, Natsuo, Rui and Hina become tangled in a complicated web of attraction, jealousy, heartbreak, family expectations and relationships that probably should have remained much simpler.
๐ Domestic Girlfriend Mess Meter
๐ถ The Opening Though…
Okay, whatever I have to say about the anime itself, I will NEVER disrespect the opening.
“Kawaki wo Ameku” by Minami is a BANGER. The vocals, the emotion, the buildup… everything about it hits. Even if you have zero interest in watching Domestic Girlfriend, go listen to the opening.
Opening rating: PUT IT ON THE PLAYLIST.
๐ฌ Immediate Vibe
๐ซถ My Take
I completely understand why Domestic Girlfriend became one of those anime people still argue about years later. The premise alone immediately throws you into an incredibly messy situation, and the series rarely gives you enough time to recover before creating another problem.
To its credit, that mess does make the anime ridiculously easy to binge. I spent a lot of the series frustrated with the characters while simultaneously needing to know what ridiculous decision somebody was going to make next.
Natsuo’s relationships with Rui and Hina are obviously the heart of the story, but they’re also what makes watching it so stressful. Feelings overlap, boundaries disappear and almost every solution seems to create two new problems.
My biggest issue is that there are moments where the drama starts feeling exhausting rather than emotionally satisfying. Complicated characters can be interesting, but eventually I wanted somebody to make a decision that did not immediately make their situation even worse.
And mind you, I already know how the manga ends. Trust me, it gets even more frustrating. Knowing where everything ultimately goes definitely does not improve my opinion of some of the choices made along the way.
Did I still keep watching? Also yes.
That basically summarizes the Domestic Girlfriend experience.
โจ Why I Still Kept Watching
For all of my complaints, the anime knows how to keep you curious. Relationships shift quickly, secrets pile up and almost every episode leaves another emotional problem hanging over the characters.
Rui was especially interesting to watch because she begins the series emotionally reserved and gradually has to figure out feelings that she does not completely understand how to express.
The series also has some surprisingly sincere moments involving loneliness, writing, rejection and figuring out what someone actually wants from their life. Those quieter scenes worked much better for me than some of the more exaggerated romantic drama.
๐ Team Hina vs Team Rui
๐ Hina Tachibana
Natsuo’s teacher, first major love and eventually his stepsister. Her relationship with him creates some of the anime’s biggest conflicts.
- Emotionally complicated
- Constantly fighting between desire and responsibility
- Responsible for a massive amount of the drama
๐ธ Rui Tachibana
Hina’s younger sister and the girl Natsuo unexpectedly meets before discovering that they are about to become family.
- Blunt and emotionally inexperienced
- Develops significantly throughout the story
- Her feelings for Natsuo make everything even messier
โ ๏ธ Content & Audience
Domestic Girlfriend deals with complicated and controversial romantic relationships, including teacher-student dynamics, stepfamily relationships, infidelity, sexuality and emotionally unhealthy decisions.
This will probably work best for viewers who enjoy melodramatic romance, complicated love triangles and stories where characters are allowed to be extremely messy.
If you need your romance anime to feature healthy communication and sensible decisions… this may be your personal nightmare.
“Kawaki wo Ameku” by Minami. I said what I said.
Characters repeatedly creating problems that could have been avoided with basic communication.
Anyone who loves messy romance, dramatic love triangles and anime that gives you plenty to argue about afterward.
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